Of Rats And Snakes
by SinghSong
Summary: In the graveyard in Little Hangleton, something goes very wrong with Lord Voldemort's resurrection ritual. How will he cope with the setback? And abandoned even by Nagini, left with only Peter Pettigrew by his side, can he still achieve his goal of taking over the world?
1. Chapter 1

The cloaked man was now conjuring tight cords around Harry, tying him from neck to ankles to the headstone. Harry could hear shallow, fast breathing from the depths of the hood; he struggled, and the man struck him in the face— struck him with a hand that had a finger missing. And Harry realized who was under the hood. It was Peter Pettigrew.

"You!" he gasped.

But Pettigrew, who had finished conjuring the ropes, did not reply. He was busy checking the tightness of the cords, his fingers trembling uncontrollably, fumbling over the knots. Once sure that Harry was bound so tightly to the headstone that he couldn't move an inch, Pettigrew drew a length of some black material from the inside of his cloak and stuffed it roughly into Harry's mouth; then, without a word, he turned from Harry and hurried away. Harry could hardly make a sound, nor could he see where Pettigrew had gone. He couldn't turn his head to see beyond the headstone, and he could only see what was directly in front of him.

Cedric's body was lying some twenty feet away. Some way beyond him, glinting in the starlight, lay the Triwizard Cup. Harry's wand was on the ground at Cedric's feet. The bundle of robes, that Harry had thought a baby might be cradled in, was close by, at the foot of the grave. It seemed to be stirring fretfully. Harry watched it, and his scar seared with pain again. Suddenly, he knew that he didn't want to see what was in those robes… He didn't want that bundle opened…

He could hear something else now, right at his feet. He looked down and saw a gigantic snake slithering through the grass, circling the headstone where he was tied. He had to try. _He had to try_... "~What's going on? Can you help me?~" Harry hissed at the snake- his voice may have been muffled by the wad of material stuffed in his mouth, but thankfully, his throat and the base of his tongue were still unencumbered, so he could still speak Parseltongue well enough. The snake froze- whipped around to face him, fixing his eyes with its own.

Wormtail's fast, wheezy breathing was growing louder again. It sounded as though he was forcing something heavy across the ground. Then he came back within Harry's range of vision, and Harry saw him pushing a stone cauldron to the foot of the grave. It was full of what seemed to be water — Harry could hear it slopping around — and it was larger than any cauldron Harry had ever used; a great stone belly large enough for a full-grown man to sit in.

The thing inside the bundle of robes on the ground was stirring more persistently, as though it was trying to free itself. The large snake slithered closer, rearing up until its forked tongue was almost close enough to flick his face. Even so, its hissed reply was so quiet that it was barely audible.

"~ _You are a speaker as well_? _I thought that Master was the only one_ _…_?~" It- or rather, she, since the snake's voice was undoubtedly that of a young woman, perhaps even a girl- seemed genuinely surprised, almost shocked by the revelation.

"~ _Master_?~" Harry whispered, confused. "~ _But- Wormtail isn't_ _…_?~"

"~Pff!~" The snake flared her nostrils, snorting in derision, before catching herself, whispering again so that only Harry could hear her. "~ _That pathetic rat is **not** my master. I hate him, so much_ _…_ _It isn't fair. That, 'Wormtail', is beneath me- he should be my prey. I want to eat him, so very badly_ _…_ _But master won't let me. It's just not fair_ _…~_ "

Her voice dripping with bitterness and resentment, the snake pulled away from Harry's face, sulking as it coiled itself up at his feet. There were crackling flames beneath the cauldron now. The liquid in it seemed to heat very fast- the surface began not only to bubble, but to send out fiery sparks, as though it were on fire. Steam was thickening, blurring the outline of Wormtail tending the fire. The movements beneath the robes became more agitated. And Harry heard the high, cold voice again.

"Hurry!"

"~That is Master. See how he's only talking to Wormtail? Ignoring me completely, treating me like I don't exist? Honestly…~"

The whole surface of the water was alight with sparks now. It looked as though it was encrusted with diamonds. Wormtail turned back towards the bundle of robes on the ground, prostrating himself before it. "It is ready, Master."

"Now…" said the cold voice.

"~After all I've had to put up with, once that rat man's finally served his purpose and created Master's new body, I'd better get him tossed to me on a platter as a treat…!~"

"~…NAGINI!~" The high, cold voice hissed this time, and the pain in Harry's scar flared up again. "~What did I tell you to do? Leave Harry Potter- he is mine! Do as I demanded of you, NOW- keep guard, watch over the cemetery! You must protect Pettigrew as he carries out the ritual! Do you understand?~"

"~Perfectly, my Lord.~" the snake- Nagini- replied, the venom in her voice clearly audible. Shaking her head, she uncoiled herself, slithering off into the grass and out of sight, still muttering to herself as she went. "~ _We wouldn't want our precious Peter Pettigrew to get hurt, would we? No, he must be protected! Lord Voldemort commands it_ _…_!~"

LORD VOLDEMORT?! Wormtail pulled open the robes on the ground, revealing what was inside them, and Harry let out a yell that was strangled in the wad of material blocking his mouth.

It was as though Wormtail had flipped over a stone and revealed something ugly, slimy, and blind- but worse, a hundred times worse. The thing Wormtail had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child, except that Harry had never seen anything less like a child. It was hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish black. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face- no child alive ever had a face like that- flat and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes. And Harry knew, then, what it was. Who it was. Lord Voldemort- that's Lord Voldemort...

In his current form though, Voldemort seemed almost helpless; he raised his thin arms, put them around Wormtail's neck, and Wormtail lifted him. As Wormtail did so, his hood fell back, and Harry saw the look of revulsion on Peter Pettigrew's weak, pale face in the firelight as he carried the creature to the rim of the cauldron. For one moment, Harry saw the evil, flat face illuminated in the sparks dancing on the surface of the potion. And then Wormtail lowered the creature into the cauldron; there was a hiss, and it vanished below the surface; Harry heard its frail body hit the bottom with a soft thud.

 _Let it drown_ , Harry thought, his scar burning almost past endurance. _Please_ … _Let it drown_ …

Wormtail was speaking. His voice shook; he seemed frightened beyond his wits. He raised his wand, closed his eyes, and spoke to the night.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"

The surface of the grave at Harry's feet cracked. Horrified, Harry watched as a fine trickle of dust rose into the air at Wormtail's command and fell softly into the cauldron. The diamond surface of the water broke and hissed; it sent sparks in all directions and turned a vivid, poisonous-looking blue.

And now Wormtail was whimpering. He pulled a long, thin, shining silver dagger from inside his cloak. His voice broke into petrified sobs.

"Flesh- of the servant- w-willingly given- you will- revive- your master."

He stretched his right hand out in front of him- the hand with the missing finger. He gripped the dagger very tightly in his left hand and swung it upward.

Harry realized what Wormtail was about to do a second before it happened — transfixed with horror, unable to look away, he watched as Peter Pettigrew sliced off his own hand at the wrist, letting loose a scream that pierced the night. He saw Wormtail's severed hand plummet to the ground- heard Pettigrew's anguished panting, as he fell to his knees and plucked it up out of the pool of his own blood, then the sickening splash as Pettigrew dropped it into the cauldron, sending resonating ripples across its surface and turning the potion a burning, blinding red.

Gasping with exertion, moaning with agony, Wormtail turned away from the cauldron- turned towards Harry, and started shuffling towards him. No. NO! He wasn't going to let this happen! Harry fought to free himself, struggled hopelessly against the ropes that bound him, but they were tied too tightly, and they were too strong... Then Harry felt Wormtail's anguished breath on his face, and realized that Wormtail already right in front of him.

"B-blood of the enemy… forcibly taken… you will… resurrect your foe."

Try as he might, Harry could do nothing to prevent it. Squinting down, he saw the shining silver dagger shaking in Wormtail's remaining hand. He felt its point penetrate the crook of his right arm, and felt his blood seeping down the sleeve of his torn robes. Pettigrew, still panting with pain, fumbled in his pocket for a glass vial and held it to Harry's cut, so that a dribble of blood fell into it. No, there had to be something, something he could do to stop this…

Harry watched, quivering with anger and rage, as he watched Wormtail slowly staggering back towards the cauldron with the vial of his blood. Turned his gaze for a moment, looking past the cauldron to set his eyes on Cedric's corpse- and the wand, his own wand, which lay at Cedric's feet. He'd never tried doing this spell non-verbally, let alone without a wand- but he didn't have any other options left, and this was their last chance. Harry summoned all his mental resolve, focused on his fallen wand as hard as he could, and summoned every ounce of will he possessed. ACCIO WAND!

Harry's wand leapt into the air, soaring past Wormtail- Wormtail stopped in mid-step, his eyes widening with shock and fear as he turned back around to follow the wand's path through the air- and into his hand. Wormtail scrambled for his wand, struggling to use his remaining hand to reach across and pull it out of his right pocket, barely managing to keep the vial of Harry's blood from slipping out of his fingers- but it was no use. Harry's non-verbal slicing hex was weak, but it still did enough to weaken the ropes which bound him to the tombstone; casting it again, a few of the ropes snapped, and the rest were weakened enough for Harry to finally manage to pull himself free.

Aghast, still unable to get his own wand out of his robes with his frantically shaking left hand, Pettigrew screamed at the top of his voice, sobbing with fear and frustration. "No! This wasn't supposed to happen! You can't… Nagini! NAGINI! Help m…"

Casting off the last of the ropes he'd been bound with, yanking the wad of black cloth out of his mouth, Harry strode forward, wand in hand. Bathed in the vermillion glow of the contents of the cauldron him, Wormtail recoiled, backing up into the cauldron with a clang- standing there cowering, looking this way and that, his eyes scrambling every which way except at him. It wasn't just the back-lighting of the intensely bright, all-permeating red glow coming from the cauldron behind him. Harry cast his eyes over this pitiful rodent of a man, the treacherous git who'd betrayed his parents and framed his godfather- and the murderer, who'd killed Cedric himself only a few minutes ago- and he saw red. He didn't just want to stun Wormtail- he wanted to tear him limb from limb… "Lacero! Lacero! LACERO!"

Wormtail squealed with terror as the intersecting arcs of magic sliced through the air, racing towards him. He couldn't shield himself without his wand, and he couldn't hope to evade them, not in this state- not in this form. Tossing the contents of the vial, Harry's blood, up into the air above the cauldron, off into the cauldron, he shifted into his animagus form, transforming into a rat just in time to escape dissection, and darted off into the cover of the tall grass.

Swearing loudly, Harry raced forward, trying to get a bead on Wormtail- but stopped in his tracks as his own blood completed its arc through the air and splattered down into the cauldron. The liquid within turned, instantly, a blinding white- and Harry's heart sank to the pit of his stomach, as he realized that Wormtail had done his job after all. The cauldron was simmering, sending its diamond sparks in all directions, so blindingly bright that it turned all else to velvety blackness, giving Wormtail the perfect cover to complete his escape. Nothing happened…

 _Let it have drowned,_ Harry thought, _let it have gone wrong_ …

And then, suddenly, the sparks emanating from the cauldron were extinguished. A surge of white steam billowed thickly from the cauldron instead, obliterating everything in front of Harry, so that he couldn't see anything but vapor hanging in the air. _It's gone wrong_ , he thought… _it's drowned_ … _please_ … _please let it be dead_ …

But then, through the mist in front of him, he saw, with an icy surge of terror, the dark outline of something, skeletally thin, rising slowly inside the cauldron. It scrambled out of the cauldron, staring at Harry with unabated fury, and Harry stared back into a face that would haunt anyone's nightmares. Whiter than a skull, scaly and completely hairless, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake's, with slits for nostrils…

It was by far the biggest, pug-ugliest, most abhorrent excuse for a rat he'd ever seen in his life.


	2. Chapter 2

Voldemort looked away from Harry and began examining his own body. His hands were- PAWS? Struck with unabated horror, his clawed fingers scraped across his own barrel chest, his pititfully scrawny and short arms and legs, his face; MY FACE...?! His red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness, his impotent rage, fury and indignation growing to uncontrollable levels. He held up his hands and flexed his claws- teetering on the brim of cauldron as he did so, struggling to keep his balance and stand upright on his legs, instead of toppling over and falling back into the massive, cavernous cauldron beneath him. Eventually, he managed to wrap his head around the task of bringing his unruly, scaly tail- TAIL?- under control, stopping it from flailing it around and finally managing to use it to gain a steady purchase. This- this couldn't be! This wasn't supposed to happen, this was impossible, IMPOSSIBLE...! "No... no, no, NO NO NO NO! I'm a, a... RAT? A RAT!? WORMTAIL! YOU USELESS, INCOMPETENT, STEAMING PILE OF..."

Harry recoiled, covering his ears, trying to block out the frightful, incomprehensible onslaught of rodent screeches, spewing out of the mouth of the freakish snake-rat creature which squatted before him. Even now, it teetered on the brim of the cauldron, wildly gesticulating with its short, weak forelimbs as if it was possessed. And if the snake, Nagini, had indeed been telling the truth, and Wormtail had indeed been trying to reincarnate the person he thought he'd been, then this vile naked snake-rat was indeed possessed, the vessel of the greatest evil imaginable. The scar on Harry's forehead seared with a sharp pain again, so intense he thought his head would burst with the pain- getting worse and worse, as the reptilian rat creature got more and more agitated, and its screeching got louder and louder. Clearly, its over-large head made the balancing act difficult, and its lack of whiskers didn't help either- though the snake-like prehensile tail clearly helped. Harry shuddered, having to fight to stand steady on his own feet in the face of the creature's unholy din. Merlin, it looked disgusting- this thing needed to be put down for its own good. For the good of all mankind... Gritting his teeth, trying to block out the unholy din, Harry stepped forward, wand in hand. Pettigrew may have managed to do a runner, at least for the time being- but there was no way he'd let this creature, this... Lord Voldemo-RAT, escape the clutches of justice...

"Immobilus!"

"...PITIFUL EXCUSE FOR- Aaaghh!~NAGINI!~" Interrupted in mid-diatribe, caught off-guard, Voldemort switched to parseltongue and yelled out at the top of his voice, summoning his snake familiar to his side from wherever the hell she'd gone off to, as the towering figure of Harry Potter advanced on him, and a Freezing Charm erupted from the end of Potter's wand. The charm surged towards him, seemingly in slow motion- no doubt due to the heightened metabolism, better reflexes and far stronger fight-or-flight instincts of this body, _thank Salazar for small mercies_ \- and he had no problem leaping out of the way, launching himself through the air, and landing on all fours in a crouching stance. C _ould he fight back? Could he even cast any magic himself any more, in this pitiful excuse for a form_? He'd never be able to hold a wand with these useless, weak excuses for hands; and he didn't have the time to find out right now. He'd never felt more weak, more feeble, more vulnerable- _more at risk of imminent death_... "~NAGINI! TO ME! WHERE ARE YOU...?~"

"~...Coming, coming! What's the matter, Master dearest? I was just sitting back, keeping an eye out like you told me to. And enjoying the entertainment, of course. Listening as that filthy rodent screeched out his last breaths, so loudly, for sooo long... Ooh, please tell me it's snack time at last!~" The great snake slithered back into sight, snaking her way through the maze of tombstones- before abruptly coming to a halt, stunned into silence as she emerged into the clearing of the circle, her eyes widening as she set her gaze on the scene in front of her for the first time. When she spoke again, every trace of the satisfaction and amusement which had laced her silky-smooth words a few moments earlier had vanished, replaced by shock and utter bewilderment. "~...What? What's going on here? What is- is that _Wormtail_? Where, where is my- Master? MASTER?~"

"~ _Protect me_ , Nagini! Attack Harry Potter, _now_ , KILL HIM NOW...!~" Lord Voldemort hissed at the top of his voice, raising one of his forelimbs to point in Harry's direction- who'd been set aback for a moment or two, when this creature had actually started speaking in a tongue he could understand, but who now stood there with the flame in his eyes blazing anew, all traces of doubt about its true identity erased from his mind. Keeping his wand fixed on Voldemort, Harry whipped around to face down Nagini, his muscles coiled to avoid the snake's anticipated strike- but Nagini still wasn't moving, lying there where she lay in the grass, her eyes still fixed unerringly on the small, monstrous creature Lord Voldemort had become. Snakes didn't have facial expressions- but looking at her, even in this near-total darkness, Harry could somehow read the emotions of horror, disgust and betrayal playing across her features, as clear as day.

"~...MASTER?! That- that's YOU?! You, you're- you _used_ me, used _m_ y venom, to become like THAT? Like HIM? No, not even like him; some perverted CROSS-BREED, an unnatural union between ME and HIM! ME and WORMTAIL... Oh Salazar, I think I'm going to throw up...~"

Voldemort's eyes bulged almost out of their sockets; turning to glare furiously at Nagini, baring his horribly mish-mashed set of teeth and fangs at her and spitting at her with livid rage. "~What? NO! I SWEAR, I'LL KILL THAT...~" In the periphery of his vision, Voldemort saw Harry's casting hand moving. Recognising the amateurish wand-work instantly, he scrambled out of the way yet again, just in time to avoid the trap- behind him, the patch of grass surrounding where he'd just been standing transfigured into a shoddy metal pet cage. "~NAGINI, I don't have time for this! Now, do it NOW!~"

"~This, all of this, was about him, wasn't it? That's why you wanted Wormtail to do it with you instead of Crouch, isn't it? You wanted to be like him- You want to be WITH him, don't you? _Don't you_! You, you're _sick_. _You're both_ SICK...!~" Recoiling away, Nagini spat the words at him, before turning away, shaking her head. Voldemort froze, fixed to the spot; his misshapen face went blank, as all of the emotion simply fell away.

 _She has the nerve to spout this, insane drivel_ , _and then turns her back on me_? _ME_...? "~I DIDN'T WANT THIS!~" He yelled, scream-hissing even louder than the steam whistle on the Hogwarts Express on full blast. "~Stop throwing your damned HISSY-FIT, and KILL THIS BASTARD ALREADY...!~"

"~Nagini. Nagini? Are you really going to let him speak to you like that? HIM?~"

Nagini pulled herself out of it, turning around to fix her attentions on the speaker- this, Harry Potter, the young man she was being ordered to kill. Yet, he spoke to her with more kindness, consideration and respect in his voice than her Master ever had- more than her Master ever would, or could. His wand still locked onto the horrific, perverse serpentine rat creature that her Master had chosen to become- the creature which she now realized was a perfectly reflection of the man's true character- Harry was staring into her eyes, crouching down slightly so that his own bright emerald eyes were closer to being level with her own. Gazing into them, she could see that they were filled with acceptance, warm, welcoming and inviting... This new Speaker, this Harry Potter, might only be a juvenile human- in all likelihood, barely any older than she herself was- but Harry Potter was looking at her like she was actually worth something. Looking at her like her respect and acceptance were things which were actually worth earning; like he sincerely intended to try and gain her allegiance on merit, to try and prove that _he_ was worthy of _her_. So unlike the other Speaker, Lord Voldemort, who simply demanded that she serve him for all eternity without question, and still did even now...

Slowly, Nagini shook her head. He was right. She _was_ worth more than that; she _did_ deserve better than this. "~You know what, Harry? _No_ , I'm _not_. _Not any more_...~"

Voldemort's jaw dropped open in disbelief. How- how could...? "~What?! You dare defy me? ME?! I am your MASTER, NAGINI! I AM LORD VOLDEMORT! OBEY ME!~"

"~You are NOT my master! Not any more; NEVER AGAIN! YOU'RE FILTH!~"

Harry smiled at Nagini's fierce outburst, filled with a surge of hope and relief by her words. "~Right on, Nagini. You've done yourself proud...~"

Nagini looked up at Harry, eyes gleaming in the faint moonlight; popping out her fangs and sticking out her tongue out as far as it could go, in an expression which only a parseltongue would be able to read as a beaming grin. "~Thank you, Harry.~"

"~You're welcome, Nagini...~"

"~No. No, this isn't happening. I won't let this happen- you, you will see what happens to those who oppose the Dark Lord. BOTH OF YOU, YOU HEAR ME? You shall feel the wrath of Lord Voldemort, mark my words...~" Harry and Nagini broke their eyes away from one another to look back down on the enfeebled figure of Lord Voldemort, rambling now as he struggled to stand his ground, and visibly trembling. Not with rage or anger though, not any more; Nagini could smell it. The reptilian rat reeked of fear, the smell of it already almost as potent as the stench of Wormtail's unceasing state of near-terror had been. Even Harry could sense it, as the pain in his scar dwindled away to almost nothing. "~So. What do you think, Nagini? Ready for snack time?~"

Nagini fluttered her forked tongue gently, a gesture which Harry heard in his mind as an amused, playful giggle. "~Oh, no, No! Are you joking, Harry? I have _some_ food standards; and just the sight of him's enough to make me want to hurl. _But_...~" Nagini reared the upper third of her body up into the air, glaring down at the rodent-like form of Lord Voldemort, quivering before her. The corners of her mouth flicked upwards to form a semblance of a smile, deadly poison dripping from her every syllable. "~...It's _definitely_ killing time...~"

"AAAGH!" Voldemort screeched his tiny lungs out as Nagini launched herself at him, deadly beads of venom visibly glistening on the tips of her fangs. Instinctively, he span around on the spot, focusing as hard as he could on the place where he wanted to go, and pleading, pleading, pleading that he still had just enough magic flowing in his veins to pull it off and apparate away from this accursed place. _Pettigrew- I have to find Pettigrew_!

POP. Nagini's fangs bit down, but only on thin air and the tips of the overgrown grass. "NO!" Harry yelled in anger, casting an Incendio Charm at the nearest tree and setting the upper half of it ablaze. Voldemort was gone; both of the rats had managed to escape his clutches, AGAIN.


End file.
